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Since we're talking about income i must say so far my average is below TQ. Having run a couple more sites today in low and null, despite getting a bit better at the pinata i average about 40m in nullsec (best was 84m) and 10m in low sec (best around 20m). I know its hard to put a number on random income like exploration. But from what i've heard about nullsec and my own experience with low sec exploration the numbers don't add up yet.

And truth be told i'll not be happy with the income even if it reaches pre-Odyssey levels given the hassle of doing them and something i'm about to explain:

Profession sites used to be more of a bonus. You did them on the side when you stumpled upon them, either quickly refitting your ship or using a all in one fit to run both exploration and combat sites. Perhaps for newer chars it was a bit different.

With Odyssey it goes now in a direction where the profession sites become more specialiced. To master the hacking game and loot spew you'll want a ship that is maxed out for the job. Rigs, mods, perhaps a hacking implant for your char. Multiple tractor beams in the hi slots and a fit for insta locking helps a lot with the loot pinata (something i learned today).

So it goes in a direction where you have to chose between profession and combat sites. The thing is as it stands now ther's still a lot more isk to be made in combat sites. Enough people manage to have an income in the billions per week. For profession sites on the other hand you're probably gonna count in tens or hundreds of millions instead.

Some lucky fellas will get the pos bpc but in the newest dev blog it's decribed as a very very rare drop. So i doubt its close anywhere near the probability of a good drop in a combat site.

If profession sites are supposed to be their own thing then it should pay off to specialice in them. Perhaps not quite as good as combat sites but definitely closer then what it used and is right now. Otherwise i see it drifting into obscurity. For older players it doesn't pay well enough, newer players will stick to for a while maybe then move on.

Karsa Egivand has a point about the market making the prices. So just putting more salvage, decryptors and datacores in will have a negative effect. Instead loot needs to be spiced up with a wide variety of things and different loot tables in different parts of the game world. I'm not sure with what exactly the loot tables could be spiced up. Perhaps more pirate bpc's. maybe cosmos stuff? It's so obscure right now. With better supply for the materials and bpc's whole new markets could evolve from it.

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Hidden_Ruins

This site hasn't been replaced with a new one. Got it as a relic site in nullsec. Was a bit surprising to get welcome by 3 battleships after warping to it.

I think the idea of making "loot pinata" a punishment for a failed hacking/archaeology attempt is an excellent idea. Having something blow up in your face is usually a bad thing. It seems really, really, odd as a reward. If you successfully hack the site you get everything in the can. If you fail you get "loot pinata" AND everything else that comes with a failed attempt (e.g. rats, explosive traps).

I guess from a pvp or loot ninja's perspective having the can explode with every success is a good thing.

Heh, it could work for asteroids too, but only if it switches to a mini game of the classic arcade game of Asteroids.

Only if the little triangle pointer is transfomed into the mighty Veldnought.

Also, this doesn't have to be a "you can't lose" scenario as I'm fine with hacking the occasional empty can. Perhaps make it a chance to either spew loot, completely lock you out, summon rats, or whatever else would be a proper punishment.

Bringing friends is still helpful as you can have someone to help loot or cover you from rats when you fail. I'm still a fairly new player to this game, but I will argue that there are virtually no situations where bringing friends is a bad idea.

So what is the plan CCP?

You've released a dev blog explaining about the exploration changes and two threads full of people saying that they don't like it.

Is anything being done or planned to be done with the feedback we've provided?

Has the CSM been made aware that this is a potential raging issue that needs to be looked at before its too late?

Well if it were up to me they'd push back the launch until they got it right.

I've done my share of defending the hacking and loot system, but that was really just me trying to convince myself that it was a good system.

In all honesty it's a total piece of crap. Hacking at the moment is extremely difficult (at least in nullsec) which alone brings down the isk efficiency, then on top of that you have the loot spew mechanic which brings things down even further.

The loot is absolute ****, the hacking is far too much about luck and the odds are stacked against you, the loot is ****, the spew mechanic means that even if you successfully hack a can you still don't necessarily get the loot unless you're in a fast ship, gave great eyesight and no colorblindness, have a high-end gaming mouse, have a fast internet connection, have excellent reflexes and hand-eye coordination, have a large monitor, and/or bring a friend who spends 80% of his time sitting on his hands feeling incredibly bored and the rest frustrated at chasing after cans, and oh, did I mention that the loot is absolute ****?

The Regional Blood Raider Data Processing Center data site in blood raider lowsec seems to have a major design flaw: all of the cans are located inside a very large cross-shaped asteroid, which makes it impossible to collect loot without approaching the site from a very specific angle. The congestion in the site is so severe that the loot cans were bouncing around like pinballs after being ejected following a successful hack. Here's a picture that shows the position of the hacking cans inside the asteroid: http://i.imgur.com/YLf4OZn.png

Ran a few more data and relic sites in blood raider lowsec using a heron (virus coherence/strength = 135/40). The four data sites I did (Blood Raider Data Mining Site/Data Processing Center/Command Center/Regional Backup Server) dropped around 90m of loot plus a few BPCs that the game doesn't value properly; each site took around 10 minutes to hack and loot. I was easily able to hack everything at the first time of asking, and got 80-90% of the spew cans. That seems OK-ish, although nothing like so good as nullsec sites. The two relic sites (Decayed Blood Raider Particle Accelerator/Collision Site) dropped around 4m of T1 and T2 salvage with no other loot of note, which seems like a rather poor return for around 15 minutes of hacking and looting. Obviously, it's possible that this just means that the random number generator wasn't feeling nice this morning, but it may be worth having another look at the lowsec relic loot tables.

Why should you have your cake and eat it too?
Loot piñata as a failure mechinac defeats the purpose of the mini game and any player skill/luck in exploration and will only glorify blobing in even more areas of the game.